“Our industrial project business performed significantly better than in the previous year.”

Looking at the overall Deutsche Post DHL business, group revenue was up 2.9% year on year to €63.3bn, with all five divisions contributing to this positive performance. Ebit improved by 30.6% to €4.1bn – a new record.

Deutsche Post DHL chief executive Frank Appel said: “Thanks to our broad geographic set-up and our comprehensive portfolio we are in a very robust position and more resilient than other companies in our sector.

“We succeeded in growing further in all areas and generating record earnings despite the challenging global economic environment in 2019. Of course, we cannot disconnect completely from the global economy.

“We will not remain entirely unaffected by this worldwide crisis. However, it is currently much too early to judge its financial impact.”

“In spite of this, we are forging ahead with our Strategy 2025 and putting the company on track to continue our profitable growth in 2020 and beyond.”